I’d like to begin by sharing the Billboard 200 Year-End placements of the albums we already covered.
#88. Jefferson Starship – Spitfire
#77. Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak
#75. Santana – Amigos
#71. Chicago – Chicago X
#70. Steely Dan – The Royal Scam
#68. Bad Company – Run With The Pack
#57. Firefall – Firefall
#55. Elvin Bishop – Struttin’ My Stuff
#51. David Bowie – Station To Station
#49. Heart – Dreamboat Annie
#47. Led Zeppelin – Presence
#46. Steve Miller Band – Fly Like An Eagle
#44. Aerosmith – Rocks
#39. The Doobie Brothers – Takin’ It To The Streets
#35. The Rolling Stones – Black And Blue
#19. George Benson – Breezin’
#17. Boz Scaggs – Silk Degrees
#8. Queen – A Night At The Opera
#7. Bob Dylan – Desire
#3. Wings – At The Speed Of Sound
#2. Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac
And coming in at #1 on both lists is…
Well, you saw the title of the post. It’s Frampton Comes Alive!, the double live album by Peter Frampton. Released in January 1976, it is certified eight-times Platinum in the U.S. The album was so big that it was not only #1 on the 1976 Billboard 200 Year-End, but also #14 on the 1977 Year-End. As for the singles, the live versions of “Show Me The Way,” “Baby, I Love Your Way,” and “Do You Feel Like We Do” peaked respectively at #6, #12, and #10 on the Hot 100.
To this day, Frampton Comes Alive! remains one of the best-selling live albums of all time. Honestly, though, I remember being underwhelmed the first time I listened to it the whole way through. I thought Frampton was less captivating as a singer than as a guitarist. But upon re-listening, I found myself enjoying the record more. In my opinion, the metric for a great live album is that it makes me want to have been at the show in person. While I still think Frampton is merely competent as a vocalist, he and his band play their instruments incredibly well. He plays some amazing solos on tracks like “Lines On My Face,” while “I Wanna Go To The Sun,” “(I’ll Give You) Money” and the fourteen-minute closer “Do You Feel Like We Do” are overall great performances. I have seen Peter Frampton in concert. Not in 1975, mind you – I wasn’t born yet. But there are moments on the album that I still wish I could have seen for myself.
So yeah, Frampton Comes Alive! is a good record. Except for one lyric in “It’s A Plain Shame” that goes “Let’s get arrested. Want to be molested. Who cares how old you are?” But aside from that one extremely creepy line, I get why this album was such a big hit.
And with that, we conclude the 1976 year-end. Stay tuned for 1977.
Leave a Reply